More about soy, manufactured food, and food trends

Just in case you missed it, this article about soy that plume linked to in the comments to the previous entry about the anti-soy article in the Guardian is excellent. (Thanks plume!) Also, here is the link to the article cited: Soy Alert - Tragedy and Hype, and the Wikipedia article on the Weston A. Price Foundation. I have to say that I far prefer the "What About Soy" article because the Soy Alert article is full of hyperbole and drama, of the PETA kind. Regardless of what my views are on an issue, I personally have a deep dislike of over-hyped, over-dramatic posing or prose.

It's really hard to sort through the waves of information we get about this or that food. Is soy a miracle product? Is green tea a miracle product? Is low carb the miracle cure to obesity? We may think one way or another on each issue, but I think we always have to remember that when a certain way of eating or a particular food becomes trendy, the food manufacturing corporations are bound to jump on it and overdo it in a major way in the attempt to capture our attention and money. So we always have to be careful and go slowly. Remember when the low-fat craze was on, and people thought they could lose weight by eating all the Snack Wells they wanted? Eating and nutrition are not like fashion; our bodies don't want us to change our eating habits drastically just because whatever we were feeding ourselves isn't trendy any more.

If there is one thing I've been trying to do, albeit very slowly and inconsistently, over the last few years is to get rid of as much manufactured or processed food from my diet as possible. I rarely eat TV dinners or prepared frozen food - the only frozen food I buy is stuff with just the basic ingredients listed on the label (peas, carrots, berries). I try to stay away from manufactured snacks too, though that's mainly as part of my feeble attempts to keep my weight under control. This is really hard to do though, especially when work gets too busy or stress levels rise. (And I have to admit that staying with 'natural' food is rather easier when one lives in a small village in Switzerland, rather than a big city like New York. When I lived in New York I existed on junk food and takeout. There is a big correlation between stress and what we eat, I think.)

The one part I did like in the Guardian article is when one of the researchers says that he stays away from food that hasn't been eaten for at least 200 years. 200 might be a stretch since there has been so much food innovation in that time, but the idea behind it makes sense.

Anyway, I've strayed quite a lot into the territory of food as politics and nutrition lately...this is mainly because I've been having a hard time with real food. The heat has really zapped my appetite! The most I've been able to stomach is very simple food like green salad with maybe some (dolphin-free) tuna on top, bread spread with easy things (like tapenade) and things like that. Oh, and lots of (organic if I can find it) fresh fruit. Not much cooking! I think I'm going to make another batch of tofu though, because hiyayakko (cold tofu) is a perfect thing for a summer meal.

Submitted by maki on 2006-07-27 15:49.
Filed under:  essays legumes ethics philosophy

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Comments

julie_ohara

27 July, 2006 - 17:07

thank you so much for linking to those articles and giving your take on the content. I have been contemplating the soy issue and have started to eat soy products more sparingly. The key to protecting our health, I think, is to avoid processed food as much as possible. I have little doubt that the industrially produced soy foods out there are not doing anything good for our health. I shudder to think of all the babies given soy milk, especially if it's true that this is what women on welfare are stuck with. I agree that the Guardian article was too alarmist. As long as we eat natural and organic soy foods in moderation, I think we will be just fine.

cyrell

29 December, 2009 - 17:41

I think that with the woman and the welfare is a hoax.

Soy fformula is still more expensive than cow based formula and the government tries to get the stuff into the stomach of the people.

And there is also so much powdered milk stored...the storages are full and milk is mixed into everything because there is so much produced even when the american people have the highest consumation of milk on the whole planet.

There is plenty of milk and meat...you get plenty of that in school lunches..what is missed are the vegteables and fruits...one president also tried to placate ketchup as a vegetable so he could safe money and not supply more greens for school lunches.

Also soy milk formulas are just as safe as milk formulas.

All the hype about hormones in the soy which makes male babys grow boobies is such a bag of sh*t.

Just think a bit...the growth hormone of cows and humans is 100% the same..is someone wants to dope what does he do...inject or swallow animal hormones or soy?

So why are not all asian people impotent if soy makes male grow boobies? It would be an easy way for women to grow bigger boobs or for transgender people to change their sex..but no...that does not happen.

Animal hormones are nearly 100% similiar to our own...the hormonal contraception..made from soy...no...

Medication against premenstrual syndromes..made from soy? No..from the urine of pregnant and nursing horses.

Why would soy be used as a favorite farm animal feed if it would turns the animal(like humans) infertile like some articles suggest?

There are much more hormones in animal based milk than in plant based...especially because in the USA it is allowed to give the cows hormones to make them produce more milk...and all the hormones we can find in the milk again.

This is what makes men grow boobies, not soy.

What maks soy unhealthy is the genetical altering, the high ammounts of herbicide and pesticide which are used during growing soy(especially as feed for farm animals and which are found again in milk and meat)and the use of unfermented soy.

Just like raw grains will give you stomach pains, raw soy may give you stomach pains.

Bread is made with yeats and sourdough to break down the stuff which the plant produces to not get eaten.

The grains produce this chemicals to hinder the digestion so the animal poos and the seeds still are alive and can grow.
But when it is moist and warm the enzymes in the seed break down the chemicals because otherwise the seed could not use its own nutritions to grow...and that is what humans do when they make bread with yeast or sourdough.

If you use TVP(textured vegetabled protein, soy curls, soy meat) the soy is only heated, not like with tofu where it is first soaked in water...which starts the process when the seed is activating the enzymes and breaks down the chemicals that are bad for your digestion.

If you eat high ammounts of TVP, or other legumes not soaked...or whole meal from grains in your dishes, you will get problems.

You will get cramps, loose minerals..get headache...not just from soy...grains are the same.

If it is so bad then why do asian people use it so much?

If you use natural brewed soy sauce, miso and tofu you are safe if you hav not an allergy...especially if you avoid all the chemicals and buy organic because the chemicals used during growing the soy beans are what most people react so badly.

You can also make TVP safer if you soak it over night and add some raw, unheated miso. It will break down the chemicals similiar to when you soak the whole bean..and it makes it taste better.

Bu if you do not eat as much TVP as a typicall american would eat meat, you are still on the safe side.

If you switch the meat from an unhealthy, unbalanced diet to soy, you will have problems, just like before..it is all about having a balanced diet with much fresh vegetables and fruits and other whole foods.

cyrell

29 December, 2009 - 17:13

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2005/10/11/healthy-al...

Read this article here... it was written by The Weston A. Price Foundation, the same one which claims that soy is bad.

There is so much rubbage on this page i could pull my hair out.

They promote a milk formula for infants based on purred, raw liver, beef stock, raw egg yolk and other stuff.

Ok..milk formulas based on soy milk or cow milk are really not the best..mothers milk is always the best but this is horrendous.

So many babys died when the mother was not able to breast feed...even with all the homemade formulas based on milk of an other species because the milk is so different and harder to digest than human milk.

It is very difficult to get the right ammount of nutrition for a baby if you have no breast milk...and the formula one can buy is the most safe stuff...ok..there was this scandal with the chemical in china..but still.

To make such a complicated formula yourself...raw liver?..raw egg?

You can never be sure there are no salmonellas or other nasty stuff inside even if it is organic...and unaltered cow or goat milk ..there is a reason why people did cook the milk, thinned it with water and added oil and sugar...and put some sour fruit juice in it....

Because the milk is so different(too much protein, which was too big and had to be broken down by the acid in the juice because babys have not enough stomach acid, not enough milk sugar and not enough fat) and babys can so easily catch an illness even if the milk is best quality.

This site is dangerous because it mixes truth with half truths and false information and the people believe it.

If humans could not produce a safe formula all the hundreds of years ago when animal milk, liver and eggs were available, how can they claim it is safe today and the better alternative than a formula researched and made by scientists with all the modern technics which make the protein smaller and easier to digest and to add the exactly needed minerals and viamins?

Also what they say about vegetarians makes me snort...yeah sure..i could bang my head real hard on the wall when i read that garbage.